2013

December - No Meeting

November - Annual Potluck & Holiday Party

October - MARY HETTMANSPERGER

Mary Hettmansperger is a fiber artist and jewelry artist who teaches both here and abroad. She has authored & illustrated 3 books - "Mixed Metal Jewelry Workshop: Combining Sheet, clay, Mesh, Wire & More", "Wrap, Stitch, Fold & Rivet", and "Fabulous Woven Jewelry". She has had work exhibited at SOFA - through the Katie Gingrass Gallery. Her work has been showcased in many basket, fiber and jewelry books, publications & magazines. Se has done segments for the PBS programming Beads, Baubles and Jewels. We were very, very lucky to have Mary come to lecture and teach. She is an amazing teacher, a wealth of information but deep down inside, she is a crazy artist who you will just adore!

September - Teresa Sullivan

For someone who is more often associated with seed beads, Teresa Sullivan has always been fascinated with trade beads---the weirder, the uglier, the better. Her love of oddball beads dovetails with her flair for the unusual and the unheralded. We joined her as she shared pieces from her collection, heard unique anecdotes about the role these beads played in our history and even our survival, and found out how seed beads tied into the story.Teresa brought a selection of beads for purchase, along with viewing-only pieces from her collection to view.Teresa Sullivan began making ceramic beads and stringing jewelry around 1990, and joined the Portland Bead Society during the Bead Bazaar in November 1992. Embracing sculptural bead-weaving in 1994 in a class by Joyce Scott, she incorporates beads of all sizes and shapes in her work. She has been published in several books, including Suzanne Golden Presents: 36 Artists Who Innovate with Beads, and her artwork has been exhibited as far away as Tokyo. Her work can be seen at www.teresasullivanstudio.com

August - No Meeting

July - NO MEETING

June - Potluck & chair sale

May - Marlo Miyashiro

Improving Your Small Object Photography for Your Online ShopShe showed us how to take control of the camera we already own and learn how to take great product photos that will make products more appealing to online shoppers. She spoke in-depth about both the technical and creative aspects of small object photography so as to display work in it's best light!

Marlo Miyashiro is a Seattle based jeweler, crafter, maker of sewn things, community organizer, and arts business consultant. She draws on her 20+ years of experience to help artists grow their businesses through her consulting practice and find community in the Seattle area via etsyRAIN, a group of Seattle-area Etsy sellers over 1400 members strong. Learn more about her work at http://SmallObjectPhotography.com and http://CreativeArtsConsulting.

APRIL - LEAH FAIRBANKS

Leah Fairbanks has been making lampworked glass beads for 20 years. She began her career creating stained glass windows, fused glass bowls and plates, and neon sculptures but after a weekend lampwork glass bead-making course she changed her focus to working with hot glass. She teaches worldwide and is in many publications. Her presentation will show examples of her early glass work to the lampworked glass beads and jewelry that she makes today.

Leah lives in Ashland, Oregon, with her husband Derek Lusk, a lapidary artist and prospector of gem stones, and her six-year-old daughter Tara Arabella. Leah finds that Ashland is a perfect place to gather inspiration for her work. She draws from nature for inspiration and is best known for her distinctive representational floral, berries, and bonsai tree beads. You can view more of her work at www.leahfairbanks.com.

Derek Lusk has been a purveyor of gemstones and a lapidary artist for the past 20 years and is a world traveler and avid stone collector. Making his own beads began as a creative outlet which he started after he began mining Oregon opal from the Opal Butte Mine in central Oregon. He has mined Oregon sunstones for the past 15 years; 8 years ago he started Outback Mining Co. with his other mining partners. He creates gemstones and beads from this material that is hard to obtain and highly sought after.

March - SHERRY SERAFINI

February - Virginia Blakelock

Working in the 1970s, Virginia Blakelock was the first person on the West Coast to bring a formally trained artist’s sensibility to the craft of beadwork. It’s been said that her Moth necklace inspired the modern beadwork movement. She and her friend Carol Perrenoud were the first beadworkers to tour the country teaching beadwork, and Virginia wrote the first modern treatise on beading techniques, Those Bad Bad Beads. Famous beadworkers, including Diane Fitzgerald, Carol Wilcox Wells, Fran Stone and Margie Deeb, got their starts in Virginia’s early classes. Her lectures are always entertaining and informative, so plan to attend this one.

January - David V. Horste

IVORY: Organic Gem Material of the Ages

Ivory is an organic gemstone that has been used by humans since the dawn of time. The teeth of all mammals can technically be considered a form of ivory. David V. Horste of DVHdesigns lectured on different forms of ivory, it's characteristics, uses throughout the ages, the decline of ivory, contemporary challenges presented to conservation, and concluded with an overview of his work in fossil walrus and mammoth ivory. He had his own work in fossil ivory available for viewing, handling, and purchase, as well as ALL the rest of his inventory.

David V. Horste of DVHdesigns is a custom lapidary source for designer focal beads and cabochons. He works in semiprecious stone and organic gems (jet, fossil ivory, bone, etc.), along with upcycled materials such as bowling ball, fordite, and patterned glass. David is an internationally recognized Lapidary Artist who started cutting stones in 1976 at age 10. He has been a full time lapidary artist since 1992 with a specialty in larger, one of a kind, centerpiece and focal beads, along with unique, free form cabochons. He also has a focus on working in gemstone jet, reviving the Victorian tradition of genuine jet mourning jewelry to help the bereaved and provide grief relief. Jet is a variety of gem grade lignite coal, and he is passionate about working with these "fossil fuel jewels" to educate people about coal and the environmental implications of its use as the world's primary source of energy.